About Aikido

Aikido is a Japanese martial art created by Morihei Ueshiba, referred to as O Sensei (meaning Great Teacher) by Aikido practitioners. Aikido utilises joint locks and manipulations as well as throws in order to overpower an attacker without causing them injury. As such Aikido utilises the aggressive intent and energy of an opponent to subdue them and does not depend on size or strength to accomplish this. The techniques of Aikido are effective against single or multiple attackers and are often taught using Japanese weapons such as the bokken (a wooden katana, or Japanese samurai sword) and jo (a Japanese short staff). Aikido also teaches effective relaxation techniques, breathing exercises and the enhancement of 'Ki', a Japanese word meaning life energy, power or spirit.

About O Sensei

O Sensei was born in Tanabe on December 14th 1883 the only son of a local politician, he was a sickly child and was encouraged in physical pursuits such as swimming and sumo by his father. He would later serve in the army and fight in the Russo-Japanese war, all the while pursuing his studies of the martial arts such as Judo, Sumo, Shinkage Ryu and a variety of different styles of Ju-Jitsu, eventually he became a prospector in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It was here that he first encountered the legendary Sokaku Takeda, a renowned martial artist who travelled Japan teaching his own style of Ju-Jitsu called Daito Ryu Aiki-Jitsu. Impressed by Takeda's obvious mastery Ueshiba became his student.

Some time later Ueshiba encountered a religious leader named Onisaburo Deguchi of the Omoto Kyo sect, it was he who encouraged Ueshiba to begin teaching the martial arts he had learned, and to teach them as a spiritual pursuit rather than a way to be only physically stronger. After a time Ueshiba became a well known martial arts teacher naming his art Aikido, meaning 'way of harmony', in 1942. He eventually retired to live and teach in the small country town of Iwama leaving his only son Kisshomaru in charge of running the organisation he had set up to spread the teaching of Aikido throughout the world, this organisation was called the Aikikai and its chief instructor was a man named Koichi Tohei (Tohei Sensei was awarded the highest possible rank in Aikido, 10th Dan, shortly before O Sensei's death).

O Sensei passed away on the 26th of April 1969 leaving his son in charge of the Aikikai, however, in the years directly after World War II there had been chaos in the then occupied Japan and teaching Aikido was difficult at best (especially seeing as the occupying Americans had banned all martial arts), during this time a few of O Sensei's more senior students began teaching independently of the Aikikai, this would eventually lead to them developing into new styles of Aikido, namely Yoshinkan Aikido under Gozo Shioda Sensei and Shodokan (sometimes called Tomiki) under Kenji Tomiki Sensei. In 1974 the chief instructor of the Aikikai, Koichi Tohei resigned his position in order to begin his own organisation Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido, which focused on teaching Aikido and mind and body coordination principles, often referred to as Ki-Aikido in the west.

Today Aikido is taught around the world in a variety of different styles. The style practiced by our Aikido Club is 'Aikido Yuishinkai', an international organisation headed by Koretoshi Maruyama Sensei and Mike Williams Sensei.

About Ki-Aikido

What is Ki-Aikido? Ki-Aikido is a particular group of Aikido styles that derive from Koichi Tohei Sensei 10th Dan. Tohei Sensei was the Chief Instructor of Aikido under its founder Morihei Ueshiba O Sensei and was awarded the highest possible rank in Aikido by O Sensei in the late 1960's. Ki-Aikido places emphasis on actively teaching relaxation in order to unify and coordinate mind and body. Unlike other martial arts Ki-Aikido has specific methods and teaching directed at helping the student to learn how to be calm and relaxed under pressure. Exercises are used to teach the student how to coordinate mind and body in a relaxed way and thus to achieve the most powerful and efficient ways of moving and using the body, it is with them one can defend oneself without any great physical exertion, this means that Ki-Aikido is a method of self defence which is able to be practiced by anyone regardless of gender, size, strength or disability. In addition to this the calmness and relaxation techniques are applicable to situations in daily life that do not involve self defence. For example, many people suffer from headaches as a result of tension in the neck and shoulders, this can arise from using a computer for long periods of time. The relaxation methods taught in Ki-Aikido can help enable a person to relax and thus avoid such problems and many other similar problems also.

Aikido Yuishinkai

Aikido Yuishinkai was founded by Master Koretoshi Maruyama to promote universal values and principles of peace throughout the world. Students from all styles of aikido are welcome to train with us as we are non-partisan in our approach. Friendship with other dojos is encouraged in keeping with the harmonious spirit of Aikido. Aikido Yuishinkai is truly Aikido without boundaries.

Maruyama Sensei is widely admired and respected as a teacher who has dedicated his life to communicating the benefits of positive mind through Aikido training. He has inspired many thousands of people throughout the world over many years.